


Haunted Chaos

by themostneontwig



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog (Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Invasion, Mobius Years Later, Other, Post-Apocalypse, Winter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27991038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themostneontwig/pseuds/themostneontwig
Summary: In a future Mobius corrupted but both the Black Arms and G.U.N alike, Sonic and Lara-Su try to survive.
Kudos: 5





	Haunted Chaos

It was a cold and blustery night and all on her own, a little echidna girl stood up to her ankles in the snow.

Lara-Su was in trouble. Her tiny hands trembled as she clutched a sack of firewood that she'd slung over one shoulder and she felt her heart pitter-patter in her chest as she stood, back pressed against a tree, hiding from the G.U.N searchlights. She screwed up her face, squeezing her eyes shut as though not being able to see them might mean they couldn't see her. It was a pointless exercise of course, however it did make her feel just a little bit safer. 

After two minutes of hiding and not hearing the snow crunch with footsteps, she peeled open her eyes and checked behind her. The concrete giant that was the G.U.N base towered over her, imposing and menacing but no longer flooding the night sky with the beams from its all-seeing eyes. The echidna wasted no time now that she had her opportunity; Lara rushed past the military base and into the forest. She pulled a torch from her pocket so she could see the trail she'd left for herself on the way out, before bending down and rubbing out some of her footprints.

It was a long and hard process that froze her hands until they felt like slabs of ice attached to her wrists but eventually she got to where she'd been going: a big cave. It didn't look like much, but it was home. She headed to the very back of the cave and dumped the wood near the firepit. She made note that other various supplies had been deposited at the back, though their deliverer was nowhere to be seen.

"Sonic?" She called to make sure he wasn't nearby. Her cry echoed around the walls but garnered no reply. She sighed, pulling her coat around her just a little tighter as she walked back outside. Sure enough, Sonic's footprints were in the snow, wandering to the Gods know where. He must be hearing the voices again. Lara liked Sonic a lot but she didn't like it when he heard the voices. That was the only thing she didn't like about him.

When Lara had only been one, aliens called the Black Arms invaded the planet. They'd destroyed a lot of things and killed a lot of people, including her mamma and pappa. That was when Sonic found her, he had told her a number of times. He'd gone to check on her parents but all he found was a little crying Lara. Or that's what he assumed happened. Sonic hadn't meant to tell her but he'd let it slip that that was only how he assumed he'd found her - he didn't actually know; Sonic had a lot of holes in his memories around the time the Black Arms invaded. 

Regardless of how they met, Sonic had met Lara when she was one and raised her from there. She was six now and Sonic was forty-something (he didn't know exactly anymore) and the Black Arms still hadn't left the planet. Gone were the days of Monarchs and Councils that Sonic sometimes mumbled about, G.U.N had basically taken control of what little population remained. 

And then there were the voices. She first remembered it happening when she was three; Sonic's eyes rolled back into his head and his long, usually white tipped, quills began to stand on edge, engulfed in golden energy. He would talk to the voices and to himself and then they would beckon him to places where he could hurt himself badly, leaving only Lara to stop him. 

She followed his footprints to where she found him kneeling in the snow, fumbling with some barbed wire. He was squeezing it tightly and running it up and down his bare chest, exposed to the cold since the voices had made him pull off his jacket. Blood ran down his body and pooled in the snow around him. He wasn't going to bleed out just yet but Lara did need to stop him soon.

It had been harder when she was little, all she could do was just scream and cry, beg and whimper in some desperate attempt to try and turn him back to normal. It could sometimes take up to hours for him to do so. Now, however, Lara knew the magic words that could make Sonic stop immediately.

"The servers are the seven chaos," She walked over to Sonic, placed her hand on his shoulder and began to chant. "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that-"

"...Unifies the chaos…" Sonic finished. His quills stopped glowing. His pupils returned. The hedgehog stared down at his shredded hands and bloodied torso, shaking violently. Was it his self-destruction or the pain and cold that was making him quiver? Lara did not know, nor did she care right now. She helped Sonic put his coat on however Sonic did not zip it up. Lara told him he should do so, Sonic replied that it stung too much - he'd heal himself up first. 

The walk back was quick and silent. Sonic kept moaning, his fresh wounds causing him a great deal of pain, but he persevered. They entered the cave and pulled down the 'door' (a large amount of branches that'd been lashed together then covered in moss on the outside), before both going to the back where the firepit was.

Sonic knelt down near the bundle of wood, went to grab materials for the fire, then winced when he picked one up. The wood fell to the floor with a dull thud and Sonic hissed. "Lara...can you go get the first aid kit, please?" Sonic asked. Lara nodded, fetching it swiftly, along with one of the many big plastic containers filled with water that lined the walls. The echidna stuck her touch between her teeth so she could see what she was doing, then made Sonic kneel down and hold out his hand before pouring water on his cuts to clean them. She rubbed the wounds clean as best she could then wrapped them up carefully in bandages. Usually Sonic would insist on fixing his wounds himself except today that wasn't really possible, given the horrific state of his hands.

"What did the voices tell you?" Lara-Su asked whilst she continued to wrap the bandages. Sonic rarely ever told her what they said to him, yet she always asked him anyway. Sometimes he would simply tell her that it was not something for her ears, other times he would simply change the subject. Today he was doing the later. 

"Were you hurt when you were out today?" 

Lara sighed, wanting to he respectful of his wishes to not discuss whatever went on in his mind, and yet unable to not feel annoyed that he wouldn't speak to her. She was six, nearly seven, she could handle the whispers of some spooky old voices! Lara didn't want to force Sonic to talk about something that made him uncomfortable though so she decided to awnsers his question. "No, I'm ok. No one even saw me."

"That's good to hear," Sonic nodded approvingly. "I was fine too. Stole some good stuff from G.U.N today, they must've just restocked on a load of things." Whilst Lara went to go collect things from the nearby forest, Sonic had the much riskier task of breaking into G.U.N facilities to steal whatever could be useful to them. That was how it always went.

Lara used to often wondered why, if G.U.N had all these good things, they couldn't just turn to the organisation. Sonic always assured her that G.U.N were not to be trusted and Lara had seen first hand evidence that he was right. She'd been chased off by their patrolmen more times than she could count. Today she got lucky though.

"That reminds me," Sonic pulled his now bandaged hands away. "I have a present for you." From within the rucksack that lay by the still empty firepit he fished out a pair of glasses. "I saw that yours were looking really beaten up so I figured 'hey! time for a new pair!'" Lara pulled off her old glasses, ones so crooked and broken that they could barely stay on her face, then carefully put on the new ones. They weren't perfect, everything was still a tiny bit out of focus, but they were surprisingly good for a stolen pair that Sonic had probably come upon by chance. 

"They're good," the now bespectacled echidna acknowledged the glasses with a small nod. That seemed to make Sonic smile a little more, which in turn made Lara feel better. She liked it when he was happy.

"Well," Sonic got to his feet and breathed out in an overly dramatic fashion to emphasise the big cloud of cold air he exhaled. "What do you say we get a fire going?" Lara accepted gratefully, desperate to warm her freezing hands so that she could at the very least feel them again. The fact that they were both so cold motivated the two to make their fire quickly, so it wasn't long before the fire was alight, filling the cave with a warm, honey coloured glow. Sonic handed her some kind of energy bar to eat which Lara ate slowly, as if making the food last longer would somehow make her less hungry in the morning. Sonic didn't eat anything. Lara asked him why and he told her that he felt sick.

Not long after, it was time for Lara to sleep. Her sleeping clothes were packed away in the bottom of her sleeping bag to keep them warm but she didn't want to change into them, afraid of facing the cold night air for even a few seconds. She burrowed into her sleeping bag and hoped Sonic wouldn't notice.

"Lara."  
Shoot. He had noticed.  
"Lara-Su." And he was using her full name. Great. That was usually an indicator that he didn't plan on backing down. "You can't sleep in wet clothes, you'll freeze to death."   
"It's too cold to get changed…" The echidna complained.  
"And you'll be even colder than that in the morning if you sleep in those wet clothes."   
Lara grumbled but did what he said anyway and though she wasn't going to admit it, did feel better once she was in warm, dry clothes. Sonic took off his own sodden jacket then put all of the wet clothes by the fire and then Lara went to get into her sleeping bag. 

"Sonic?" Lara murmured as she twisted around in her sleeping bag, attempting to get herself warm quicker. Sonic's ears pricked, registering her speaking.  
"Yeah?"  
"I'm scared."  
"Scared of what?"   
"The voices."   
Sonic raised an eyebrow, curious and concerned as to what this was about.   
"What about them? We've made sure everything is safe here; I can't get out easily, all the dangerous stuff is in places only you can reach on my shoulders, the fire-"

"That's not what I meant." Lara cut him off. "I'm scared of them talking to me." She'd never said it before but that was a thought that haunted the young echidna. The voices had no interest in her as a person, she knew that - it'd been well established that they only wanted Sonic, but she feared being used as bait, being used to lure Sonic into a trap.  
"They won't talk to you," Sonic assured. "They're interested in me, me alone. I also don't think they'd kill a kid."  
"How do you know that?"   
"I just do." Sonic resumed his staring at the hypnotic dance of the flames. Lara rolled over to face the wall because of the smoke. They had a way to filter it out, of course, but that didn't stop some of it from wafting towards her and making her eyes sting.

"You know more about them than you tell me," Lara mumbled to herself. If Sonic heard her, he didn't have a response. He never wanted to share grown up stuff with her, even though he always told her how clever she was. It made Lara annoyed, she knew she could understand if he just told her what was going on. But he never did and he hadn't done so today leaving Lara to simply huff to herself while Sonic watched the fire burn to a crumbly pile of charred wood. 

The nights felt longer now that it was cold. Lara couldn't sleep well; she only managed to slip in and out of a light sleep, lying there with her face freezing as she wrapped the rest of herself up tightly. Sonic on the other hand reacted very differently to the cold. He dropped into a very deep sleep where he dreamt vividly and mumbled to himself. Often, as Lara was trying to get herself back to sleep, she would hear him whisper the names of places, people and dimensions that seemed to only exist in his head. It was scary, Lara thought at first, but when Sonic had assured her that he was having good dreams she didn't mind as much.

But eventually the night ended, as all nights did no matter how impossibly long they seemed. The sun began to revert the darkened sky back to its usual state which meant it was time for breakfast. Lara shook Sonic until he stopped talking to himself and woke up because he hadn't eaten anything last night so he should probably eat this morning.  
"Su...Is that you…? Do the Cha-"  
"You need to eat something, Sonic." 

Sonic shook his dreariness off to sit up and meet Lara's eyes.   
"I still feel sick…" Sonic complained. "Did I get us any painkillers?" Lara checked the first aid kit quickly then came back.  
"No."   
"Dammit."   
"If you eat something it might make you feel better," Lara suggested. 

Sonic simply nodded in response, agreeing numbly. He rubbed the back of his nose and that was when Lara noticed a long trail of snot trailing out of it. Poor Sonic. The cold must've made him ill.   
He reached into the rucksack he'd stashed all of the stolen goods into yesterday, fishing around for something that must've been hidden at the bottom. After a bit more fishing around he managed to find whatever he'd been looking for. With a lopsided grin, Sonic triumphantly pulled out two decently sized potatoes and about half a roll of tinfoil.

"Are we having hot food?" Lara asked, eyes glimmering. Sonic nodded.  
"If the embers from the fire are warm enough to cook these."   
Lara held her bare hand over the glowing remains of last night's fire, blowing on it to make the embers burn just a little brighter.   
"I think we can cook on this, Sonic!"   
"That's good, isn't it?" Sonic placed the two messily wrapped potatoes into the burning ashes. Lara watched them roll into the hot embers, spacing out. Sonic was quiet too, staring at what seemed nothing more than the thin air with vacant emerald eyes. 

"Lara?" Sonic continued staring blankly as he spoke.  
"Yeah?"   
"I need to steal some more stuff today. I want you to come with me."   
Lara frowned as she poked one potato with a stick to roll it over. "Why?"  
"Just because." Sonic itched his bandaged hands. "I think I might need some help."

Lara still didn't understand why, but she decided she'd go anyway. If Sonic needed help, she'd give it to him. Being quick so they didn't burn themselves, Sonic and Lara rescued their potatoes from the heat and tucked in. Hot food was a rarity for them so they were thankful whenever they could get it, even if the potatoes were bland and barely tasted of anything at all. They were warm and filling and sometimes that was all you could really ask for.

After they’d finished, Sonic stood up and pulled on his coat which prompted Lara to do the same. “What do we need to go steal?” She asked.  
“Medical supplies,” Sonic answered. “And battery cells.”  
“Is that why you need my help?” Lara inquired. “Because the battery cells are heavy?”   
“Oh no, you realised!” Sonic mocked shock. “Yeah, I’m gonna need your help to carry them back. You are your father and mother’s daughter after all.”  
“Were they strong?”  
“Really strong.” 

“What were they like?” Lara asked as her and Sonic stepped out into the snowy landscape. “Momma and Pappa?”   
“They were good friends, the both of them.” Sonic reflected. “Both absolute knuckleheads at times, but I liked them. And they were really strong, just like you.”  
“If they were really strong, why couldn’t they fight off the nasty aliens?”   
“...The aliens are very hard to fight, even for skilled people. That’s why they’re so dangerous.”   
And they were silent for the rest of the way there.

______________________________________________________________________

But little do they know, someone is anticipating their arrival. This woman’s name is Amanda Tower, granddaughter of Abraham Tower. The former G.U.N commander is dead now, and she is filling his shoes. It’s the same evening Sonic stole food and Lara’s new glasses, and she’s been shown to a food storage with clear signs of a break-in. 

“He was definitely here, Commander.” A soldier confirms, but she already knew that. There’s no mistaking those shoe prints or the faint burn marks where their target sped off with his signature speed. “What are we going to do about him?” 

The Commander folds her arms in thought. “Do we still have test thirty?”   
The soldier grimaces, “We can probably fish it out of the scrapyard. What do you intend to do with it though? I thought it failed. And it was never going to be used for anything grand to begin with.”   
“It may have failed its original purpose, but it won’t fail this one.” Amanda almost smiles. “It’s the perfect trap for Sonic.” 

The soldier nods as an understanding hits him. “Of course. I’ll go and get everything ready for the next time.”  
“Good.” Amanda fully smiles now. It’s an unnatural seeming thing, a smile is not often found on the face of someone who was raised in the military during the apocalypse. “Don’t make it look like we left it there though, don’t make it look like bait. And remember, we need that hedgehog alive.”


End file.
